Apparently, someone has filed a Federal lawsuit asking a judge to rule that John McCain is constitutionally ineligible to be President because he is allegedly not a “natural-born” citizen:
LOS ANGELES (AP) — John McCain has been called an American hero. But is he a natural born citizen?
A federal judge in California has been asked to determine if the Republican presidential candidate, who was born in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936, meets the legal test to qualify for the nation’s highest office.
The Constitution requires that only “natural born” citizens hold the presidency, a term on which the Founding Fathers did not elaborate.
McCain has said there is no question about his eligibility, an assessment echoed by former Solicitor General Ted Olson, who is examining the issue for the campaign. It was also researched for his first presidential bid in 2000.
Questions about McCain’s citizenship are “nonsense,” campaign spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker said Tuesday in an e-mail.
A two-page complaint filed March 6 in U.S. District Court in Riverside, Calif., argues that a judge should step in because the constitutional language is not precise, opening questions about the Arizona senator’s standing.
The complaint was filed by Andrew Aames, 52, a Riverside lawyer who has dabbled in local politics, including volunteering for a Democratic congressional campaign. He said he is a registered Republican but previously was a Democrat.
He said he had no political stake in the outcome. A court ruling would clear up any confusion for voters, he added, and McCain has a “very, very good” chance of prevailing.
A copy of the Complaint can be found here.
The reason that the argument that McCain is constitutionally ineligible to be President is total nonsense can be found here and here.
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March 20th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Is John McCain Constitutionally Eligible to be President?
You can decide after reading all the relevant facts.
1. There are two ways to become an American citizen: natural born and naturalized. “Natural born” is a physical fact. “Naturalized” is every other way.
2. John McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936.
3. The Constitution Article II Section 1 states, “No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible for the Office of President.”
4. In 1937 a law was passed to settle definitively the matter about persons born in the Canal Zone (S. 2416). The Act Relating to the Citizenship of Certain Classes of Persons Born in the Canal Zone or the Republic of Panama states: “That any person born in the Canal Zone on or after February 26, 1904, and whether before or after the effective date of this Act, whose father or mother or both at the time of the birth of such person was or is a citizen of the United States, is declared to be a citizen of the United States.”
The committee report to accompany S. 2416, 75th Congress, 1 Session [House of Representatives] to the bill explained in part:
“Even children born within the limits of the Zone which is under the jurisdiction of the United States are not citizens. These children referred to born in Panama do not come within the statutes on citizenship as they only provide for children born outside the limits and jurisdiction of the United States.
“The fourteenth amendment to the Constitution provides that children born of parents residing within the limits of the United States and subject to its jurisdiction are citizens.
“Children of American parents in the Canal Zone are not outside the jurisdiction of the United States, neither are they within the limits of the United States.”
It was under this act that John McCain became a citizen. It was not as “natural born”.
5. The Department of State has an excellent and authoritative regulatory Foreign Affairs Manual, inasmuch as the Department of State is routinely called upon to determine citizenship. Part 7 is about citizenship:
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/86755.pdf
The status of the U. S. Navy Hospital in the Panama Canal Zone is described in the Foreign Affairs Manual (7FAM1116.1-4(c)): “Despite widespread popular belief, U. S. military installations abroad and U. S. diplomatic or consular facilities are not part of the United States within the meaning of the 14th Amendment. A child born on the premises of such a facility is not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and does not acquire U. S. citizenship by reason of birth.”
The facts are not in question. It’s very important that a complete open examination of this important exact legal issue be resolved as soon as possible. As in many other areas, we expect America to be run by the rule of law, not by the wishful or uninformed assertions of some.
A similar situation of an unconstitutionally-qualified candidate for President came up in 1968 when the Peace and Freedom Party nominated Eldridge Cleaver for President. Cleaver was born in 1935 and would not have been met the constitutional requirement of being 35 years old by the time of inauguration in January 1969. Secretary of State of California Frank Jordan removed Mr. Cleaver’s name from the ballot in November 1968 for the Peace and Freedom Party, but left the vice president candidate’s name on the ballot. In Utah, Secretary of State Clyde Miller did the same thing.
April 3rd, 2008 at 11:06 am
If this doesn’t get settled before the general election, and if McCain won the election, who would be sworn in as president if the case went to the Supreme Court? Would the vice-president be seated? If that happened, what would happen if the Supreme Court eventually decided in favor of McCain as a natural born Citizen? Would he then be sworn in and the VP guy step back down?
It really needs to be settled before the general election. Really, I believe the only solution is a constitutional amendment unless McCain drops his candidacy.